This first piece uses minimal colour, containing only different shades of grey and white for the background. Although the piece contains quite a large amount of body copy, the large contrast between the two colours opens it up and creates an effective illusion of more empty space but ensuring that no body copy is placed within the white spaces, leaving them blank. This follows the basic rules and outlines of Swiss Style, placing text and shapes either vertically, horizontally or on a 45 degree angle. The empty white spaces assist in leading the eye into the two different paragraphs of body copy, focusing attention on firstly the top left hand side of the page, before scrolling all the way down the left side of the page, to then be led onto the large grey text seen in the bottom right corner. The work also uses a clever layering of text and image to help carve a path for the eye, most evidently seen below the first paragraph of body copy where the L of clean is extended vertically, protruding into the paragraph itself, forcing the reader to scroll downwards after reading the first paragraph, leading them closer to the second paragraph.

Boasting a seemingly more chaotic style, this particular example still uses the large headings to lead the eye diagonally across the page alongside, similarly to the previous example overlapping headings with body copy to “interrupt” the path of the eye, allowing the small point sized body copy to demand much more attention than it normally would if it were left without an overlap. the extreme contrast between the jet black of the body copy and the bright white of the headings is also effective in diverting the path of the eye into new directions. This process seemingly gives the small, black body copy a greater presence on the page than the extremely large and obvious white headings. Perhaps it is the position of the body copy, not only in relation to everything else but that fact that is the central within the page alongside the fact that it is placed on the very top layer so it overrides all that it is placed on. All of these things combined make it so that a not only is a small point sized paragraph of body copy now almost the centre point of the entire poster but also the sheer size and white colour of the headings still make it so that they force themselves into the viewers attention so that a diagonal path of the eye is still achieved, reading the three headings in the correct order. The grid system seems worth mentioning as well within this piece, while there is a literal grid designed in the background of the work, it seems to be being ignored almost completely. When I look at this piece it looks as though someone has created a very neat and structured Swiss Style art work, using the gird system as a border for text etc. However it seems as though once that has been completed the poster has been thrown and shaken, distorting the headings and body copy yet still allowing them to retain their organised structures while making their positions on the page seem chaotic, this is perhaps most easily noticed along the bottom of the page, when four clear sections are still within their grid system however they have been rotated slightly onto their side, appearing organised, yet still chaotic. perhaps this is the way the piece has been created, first beginning as a traditional Swiss Style piece then, without adding or subtracting any content the designer has completely redesigned the layout, leaving the original grid system in the background. I find this an extremely interesting piece, it seems to rebel against the rules of Swiss Style yet in an entirely new way, still obey many of the rules to make it a Swiss Style work. Much inspiration could be taken from this work, when examined carefully I think it could reveal a large amount about the way in which i could design my own poster, perhaps rethinking the movement as a whole the same way I personally feel this piece does so effectively.

Following the grid system more traditionally than the previous piece, this particular example plays in particular on the angles used within Swiss style, upon looking at this piece I find that the effect of orienting everything on a slight angle does not effect the legibility, keeping it clear and easy to read however gives the piece a more dynamic and interesting finish. The idea of putting body copy on an angle made me thought that it would hurt the legibility of the text however upon viewing it used within a poster makes me realise that if anything it does seem to make it more legible, this is a useful thing to remember when creating my own poster the possibility of using diagonal body copy and headings will allow me to explore a much wider range of layouts. However i will need to watch what grid i use carefully, as the diagonal text will not flow across columns like regularly orientated body copy, potentially looking cluttered if the placement and angle are not thought about and planned out extensively. The path of the eye is effective, forcing the viewer to read the information in the correct order however still having a large heading so that it helps to draw attention across from the right hand side of the page over to the left side on the body copy has been read. A larger array of colours have been used than most Swiss Style posters, mainly consisting of orange and black shades with a white background, the heavy contrast makes the colours look more vibrant, giving them much more impact when viewed on the page.

With it now being after my Formative assessment deadline for the Re-imagining Design Histories three week project i will annotate my final outcome as well as reflect on the project as a whole.

To begin with this project i was given a specific art movement, out of a selection of many the art movement i was given was International Typographic Style, shortly after beginning my research into the movement i discovered that it is also known as “Swiss Style”. I then researched into the key characteristics of the art movement, discovering that the works focused on cleanliness and legibility, utilising geometric shapes as well as very often having an asymmetrical layout. following on from this i then began looking at the already existing posters, in order to gather the necessary inspiration.

After gathering inspiration by looking and researching other posters as well as the movement in general i then began working within my sketchbook to sketch some initial ideas of what i wanted my poster to look like. keeping in mind the fact that i only had a range of two different colours i could include as well as the fact that i would need to include a grid system using InDesign for my final outcome.

After this i then went through multiple graphic design magazines that used a grid system and sketched out the rough layouts of some of the pages, labelling the amount of columns used alongside where body copy and images were located. sketching both asymmetric and symmetrical layout, ensuring there was plenty of variance in the different layouts i was redrawing, changing factors such as the amount of body copy to images ratio, large open space and much more densely populated pages and finding a varying amount of columns used within the grid system.

To continue on with the project i then researched ten very different Swiss Style posters and redrew the layouts, including all the text, images and shapes used in order to gather more information on what the key characteristics of Swiss Style are as well as generating new ideas for the following weeks of the project that remained, choosing work from a range of artists as well as ensuring that the posters i researched were varying in colour, space and date of creation so i would get examples from the entire timeline of the movement and not simply concentrate on one small period within the International Typographic Style.

Following on from this i then began creating digital experimentation’s, in total i created seven posters however many more concepts were generated. experimenting with the use of different geometric shapes, varying techniques and many different colour combinations. After reviewing these outcomes 3-4 were then taken forward and tweaked, finally the body copy was placed and orientated within the documents.

Once this had been completed I reviewed my outcomes once more and after one outcome was deemed to far within the Bauhaus art movement, brought the other two outcomes into the workshop for peer and tutor assessment. helping me decided not only which of the two outcomes was stronger, but also how to improve the already existing elements within the posters. However i could not decided which outcome was stronger so i decided to make the improvements to both posters and decide later which one would become my final outcome. During this review stage I learnt that while both outcomes were suitable and high quality, one was far more traditional of Swiss Style while the other “broke the rules” of the art movement somewhat.

A short time after this I had my formative assessment day, where I presented my poster and showcased a small amount about my work process, however mainly focusing on the elements of my final outcome itself, describing the grid system, my reasons for why i chose that particular design as well as mentioning the problems that occurred during the design process.

I enjoyed this project, the opportunity to learn new Adobe Programmes alongside the openness of the brief meant that i was able to experiment appropriate so that i could learn InDesign. I feel that i will need much more sketchbook work, as well as delving deeper into artist research once i receive my formative assessment feedback in four weeks time and prepare for my summerative assessment deadline.

 

Below is my final outcome that i chose to present, both with and without the grid system in view:

 

Since i had to use InDesign for this project i had to get used to working with a grid system in place as well as getting used to how InDesign operates in general. although all programmes in Adobe share certain tools/elements they all operate very differently, for instance although there is a pen tool in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. they work very differently in terms of what you can do with the tool and how it is limited as well as when it is best utilised. in some parts i found the grid system extremely useful, especially since my chosen art movement emphasises on cleanliness and legibility so heavily, having my page split into multiple clear, equal segments  made it much easier to create a clean and legible finish. the grid was rarely not useful apart from sometimes I found myself relying on the grid too much and so some parts of my posters may be seen as “too traditional”. However i felt i important to create traditional style posters at some point so that i could fully understand all the techniques, elements and processes that go into a Swiss Style poster, for me to then begin bending the rules in order to re imagine the movement.

In order to expand my knowledge of Swiss Style even further i have researched ten separate and varying known examples of Swiss Style posters and re drawn their layouts within my sketchbook, labelling the key elements of each poster. for instance the colours used, where body copy has been used as well as trying to identify what grid system has been used if i can detect it. i decided to redraw some of the very well known posters in combination other, much lesser known works in order to get a wider understanding and gather as much inspiration as possible within my movement by sourcing greater variance. some designs used  large number of differently sized shapes to fill the page and lead the eye in complex ways, whereas others used much more simple designs and relied on the natural hierarchy of the page to guide the eye downwards. i like both ways of designing, while using a complex grid system and large numbers of shapes shows extreme skill and understanding of the different elements that go into creating a Swiss Style poster. i also took equal inspiration from the more simple designs, as they how how to still fill the space effectively however not to overcrowd areas with too much information or other content. these designs also tended to use the least amount of colours, making them more relevant to my project as i can only use a maximum of two colours alongside the colour of the paper stock. i also found a correlation between the complexity of a design and the amount of columns used, while this was not true all the time it seemed to be occurring the majority of  the time. What i particularly enjoyed about this exercise was even though i only redrew ten layouts i was able to look at several dozens of examples, and i am now confident that i am adequately inspired to continue on further into the project.

 

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I decided to Brainstorm further ideas in my sketchbook so that i could enhance my current knowledge of the Swiss Style movement, first of all by creating a large spider diagram to lay out my thoughts on Swiss Style, to see how i could improve my already created posters and potentially, create new examples. my spider diagram started with four factors of Swiss Style. From those four factors many different smaller elements came off, which then split into speculation of how i could implement them into my posters, for instance, one of the main four factors was the use of bold and contrasting colours, some ideas coming from this were noted down that included: use contrasting or complementary colours?. i then proceeded to link the different colour combinations that i have not used before that could potentially create a stronger outcome than the ones i have already created. i found this this useful as i now have all my basic concepts for my posters written down so if i do need to call back to my spider diagram and brainstorm future ideas i can. also the fact that i can continue to add to this diagram throughout the remainder of the project if needed.

After presenting my posters to the class i have been given and responded to appropriate feedback about my posters, after much contemplation i decided to move forward and present two posters since i felt they both represent different types of Swiss Style posters. Some of the feedback i got confirmed that, the Yellow and black poster is a much more traditionally styled Swiss Style poster, with strong use of the grid system as well as large, bold shapes and colours. However criticism included, the need for a more space to be filled as well as comments about it perhaps being too traditional, since the project is does mention the re invention of the design history. i responded to this feedback by filling more space as well as including a self made image within the Style Style. Ensuring it overlapped with the shape in order to achieve consistency throughout. my second poster was confirmed to be a much more innovative design, slightly breaking the rules of Swiss Style however still having enough key characteristics for it to still be classified within Swiss Style. Advice i was given included; to open up the space on the poster a small amount more as it seemed too crowded, i also needed to reduce the amount of colours within the poster down to two, not included the colour of the paper stock. i responded to this feedback  by inverting the colours of the back ground, body copy and the headings. increasing the amount of white space on the page, giving the illusion of more space. the self made image was also edited so that it contains only shades of green and elements of black, and it now fits the brief appropriately. i found this feedback useful due to the fact that i most likely would not have noticed the problems with these posters simply by myself, this exercise was also useful since other people were presenting their posters, i got the opportunity to see how everyone else minds processed the brief and responded.

Below are my initial ideas for my International (Swiss) typography style poster. for this poster there needed to be only two colours present (not accounting for the colour of the background). at least one self made image present somewhere (This image can be typographic in nature). and finally it has to contain three paragraphs of text, one paragraph detailing the key elements and characteristics of my art movement, a second paragraph that went into more detail about one influential designer within the movement, talking about his career and how he was influential within the movement. and one final paragraph of text that described what the role of typography was within your specific art movement. i began by sketching some very initial ideas into my sketchbook of what kind of objects and imagery would be within my poster. as well as where everything would be placed, once i had an adequate concept of what i wanted my poster to look like i began experimenting using digital mediums. for some of these ideas i kept to traditional looks, such as the one with the Yellow and black colour scheme. and some that break the rules of Swiss Style somewhat. creating a new and innovative style of art that uses the basic rules as only a guideline and not to be followed like an accepted law, for instance the heavy use of the grid is extremely evident in some of my examples however particularly in the example that utilises a grey and white colour scheme the grid system is somewhat broken, yet elements still remain that still make that particular example within the Swiss Style art movement. since the title of this project is “Re-Imagining Design Histories” i think this example works the most effectively. i will present the two left hand side examples to go in for initial critique to see where improvements can be made.

During a Introduction session into the techniques and processes involved within Letterpress I learnt how to use the different letterpress’s as well as recorded my outcomes of the session. Letterpress is an older method of printing letter forms onto paper, by physically constructing the sentence using small metallic blocks with the letter form on the end, this takes the majority of the time, it requires a collection of items to be able to complete successfully. as well as the letterpress itself and the letter forms, appropriate ink is required alongside the metal braces to hold the letter forms in. there was a large array of typefaces available, as well as because the process is manual the words and sentences created have individuality, the fact that the press physically imprints the letter forms onto the paper, indents are created as well as small imperfections that yield personality within the sentence. There were many options available in terms of colour, however in this particular workshop the two presses were utilising a red and a black coloured ink. I enjoyed this exercise and found that the use of the letterpress would be best utilised when printing physical media such as book covers, Where a handmade finish is more advantageous. If I were to do this workshop again I would like to attempt to use separate typefaces within the same sentence as well as generally attempt more complex techniques and processes within letterpress

After completing a Screen-printing introduction exercise i am now aware of the processes involved and am competent enough in the subject to complete the processes myself. for this particular exercise, in the run up to it i first designed a simple self made image using two colours on Adobe Illustrator, this image would then be printed, made into two stencils and then screen printed using the processes that will follow. my self made image was in the style of my art movement, as there is minimal imagery in my art movement i used a simple combination of shapes to form an image. this allowed me more freedom when it came to actually printing the design through the stencil onto paper. The fact that the actual “printing” process is not using a conventional printer but instead printed manually means that you tend to get small imperfections within the work, perhaps lines will not quite line up exactly, or small areas of the design will be slightly faded. i found this to be advantageous as it gave my design a more hand-made finish, giving the colours a certain gravity and texture to them. this is not normally done when using conventional printing and so I liked the way that it looked. if i were to do this again i would like to create a more complex design, possibly using more than two colours, this would increase the chance of errors occurring however i feel it would be the next logical step in learning the techniques and processes within screen-printing

 

(Pictures to Follow)

In an exercise in combination with the Illustration Tutors, i spent a day creating abstract art to do with the art movement that i have been selected for the “Re Imagining Design Histories” three week project. because my art movement is International Typographic Style it focuses on cleanliness and legibility. i used this opportunity to strip the movement back to its bare bones characteristics and chose to display those characteristics through the card stuck onto the paper. Characteristics such as; layering of text, Implementing and relying heavily on grid systems, minimal imagery, large amounts of open space and flush left blocks of text as well as the use of sans serif fonts. i feel this exercise was very useful in allowing me to further understand my art selected art movement as well as brainstorm many more ideas in terms of my layout for my final outcome. below are some of the outcomes i made to represent my movement. if i were to do this exercise again i would simply create a larger amount of outcomes as i feel that would be the most effective way to improve upon what i have already done and allow me to grasp a deeper understanding of International Typographic Style.